Grindhouse

Many horror fans reminisce about the days of old when VHS box art was the highlight of their trip to the local video store--every shelf teasing and pleasing with gory, lurid images. Editor Jacques Boyreau and Fantagraphics Books have released a tasty opus dedicated to the colorful VHS art of vintage exploitation films. Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box is cleverly packaged in a VHS slipcase and includes 200 pages of info and pics of video store gems. In case that wasn't enough, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is inviting all of you to help celebrate the book launch in Seattle. Jealous!

On Saturday, December 12, Fantagraphics will be hosting their 3rd anniversary party (free to attend) featuring the Portable Grindhouse book launch from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. There will be merriment and book signings galore. The following day from 4:00 to 6:00 PM there will be a panel discussion focusing on Portable Grindhouse with panelists Lisa Petrucci (Something Weird), Marc Palm (Scarecrow Video), Mark Rahner (Seattle Times, Rotten) and Robert Horton (critic & curator, Rotten). The panel will be moderated by Jacques Boyreau and will be followed by a book signing and reception. The fab five will share short clips from their favorite exploitation films and discuss its influence on their work, as well as the broader social implications of the genre.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is open daily so visit the website or call 206-658-0110 for more information. If you attend, please tease me with pics of the event and I will post them on Twitter.

While you'll have to file this firmly under "rumor" and "dreams," you can do an air punch at the very thought of just who Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis lined up for Machete. Bloody Disgusting reports that joining Danny Trejo in the Grindhouse spin-off are the following: Michelle Rodriguez, Jonah Hill, and (wait for it) Robert DeNiro.

Pause for a moment and repeat that: Robert DeNiro will share the screen with Danny Trejo in Machete. While it's still unconfirmed, BD notes that the source is none other than the one who sent them news of the Alien and Predator reboots, and those turned out to be true. So you can keep hope alive that you'll see DeNiro rocking the grindhouse world.

Machete will (obviously) revolve around the main character who is an ex-Federale who is gifted with a blade. He hides out as a day laborer, and works for an organization headed by a state senator. After he's double crossed by the corrupt Senator McLaughlin (DeNiro), he takes his vicious revenge. That's all we know for now, except that promises a dash of social commentary among all the hacking, slicing, and topless girl fondling -- and maybe, just maybe, Danny Trejo putting a bladed smackdown on Robert freaking DeNiro.

Christmas only comes once a year, but you can take revenge on the holiday any time you want, thanks to Jason Eisener. The filmmaker first splashed into our consciousness with Hobo with a Shotgun, his hilarious, spot-on 70s exploitation faux trailer for Grindhouse, and then returned with a vengeance, making a really good, original short film, Treevenge. The horror short made the festival rounds, garnering guffaws and general acclaim, and became something of a word-of-mouth sensation.

Unfortunately, most short films pass on to the graveyard of celluloid memories, with little opportunity for future generations (i.e. those who missed the festival screenings) to share the joy. Enter Twitch, which has graciously provided a permanent home for all you maniacs to watch Treevenge in the privacy of your own home. Notice I said "home" rather than "office" or "place of business," because Treevenge is decidedly NSFW due to extreme bloodshed and gore of the "trees don't like being cut up and dragged into some stranger's house" variety. It ramps up very nicely into a ... well, I'd rather not say anymore, because that would ruin the magic of discovery for first-time viewers. If you managed to catch it before -- at Fantastic Fest, or Sundance, or Fantasia, or AFI Dallas (where I finally saw it) -- then you'll want to watch it again. It holds up very well.

After the jump: Watch Treevenge!

By Todd Gilchrist

During an exclusive telephone interview to promote his role as Pvt. Donny Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic Inglourious Basterds, Eli Roth told Cinematical that Thanksgiving is not the next film he's set to direct, but it's definitely going to get made. "That movie, the financing, the money is in a bank account," Roth said. "I mean, I could literally say I'm starting production tomorrow we'd start. It's 100 percent up to me, but I'm just working on the script with Jeff Rendell, the co-writer. Jeff's the one who in the trailer, he plays the Pilgrim, and we're just writing it. We're just figuring it out and we're just coming up with the kills and the characters."

Thanksgiving was initially created as a fake movie trailer that connected the two theatrical halves of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' Grindhouse, but its own popularity inspired the director to blow it up from a 16mm short into a feature film. Roth actually indicated that Endangered Species, a PG-13 sci-fi film in the vein of Cloverfield, was to be his next directorial effort. "I want to be finished with Endangered, and then Jeff is supposed to come out to Los Angeles probably some time in August and we'll probably bang out the script," he explained, indicating that the disparate content of the two films may ultimately complement his enthusiasm creatively.